Summer Reading

Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart is a charming little memoir of New York City in the mid 40s. You can almost see and feel the city as it was back then, the excitement and naivete of two Midwestern college girls experiencing the city for the first time. I have a thing for old movies, especially those that were filmed in Manhattan, and reading this book is almost like watching one.

From the front flap:

Do you remember the best summer of your life?

New York City, 1945.
Marjorie Jacobson and her best friend, Marty Garrett, arrive fresh from the Kappa house at the University of Iowa hoping to find summer positions as shopgirls. Turned away from the top department stores, they miraculously find jobs as pages at Tiffany & Co., becoming the first women to ever work on the sales floor—a diamond-filled day job replete with Tiffany blue shirtwaist dresses from Bonwit Teller's—and the envy of all their friends.

Hart takes us back to the magical time when she and Marty rubbed elbows with the rich and famous; pinched pennies to eat at the Automat; experienced nightlife at La Martinique; and danced away their weekends with dashing midshipmen. Between being dazzled by Judy Garland's honeymoon visit to Tiffany, celebrating VJ Day in Times Square, and mingling with Café society, she fell in love, learned
unforgettable lessons, made important decisions that would change her future, and created the remarkable memories she now shares with all of us.

It will make you want to try on one of the Tiffany blue nail polishes reviewed in Blogdorf Goodman last week. I don't think I can pull of this particular look, but the colors are gorgeous. I think they look best against pale skin.


For those who share my love of NYC memoirs and wish to read something a bit more literary, Here's one of my most favorite books of all time: Manhattan Memoir by Mary Cantwell.

Mary Cantwell was a fashion writer for several magazines. Her three-part memoir covers her New England childhood and her adult years as a working woman in Manhattan of the 50s and 60s. The book is beautifully written and pulls you into her world.